Title:
Letter from [John Muir] to [Charles Sprague] Sargent, 1901 Sep 6.
Creator:
[John Muir]
Publisher:
University of the Pacific Library Holt-Atherton Special Collections. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies
of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Contributor:
[Charles Sprague] Sargent
Date:
1901 Sep 6
2008
Type:
Text
Format:
Image/jpeg2000
Identifier:
muir11_0854-md-1
Source:
Original letter dimensions: 22.5 x 14.5 cm.
Language:
eng
Coverage:
Martinez [Calif.]
Rights:
Copyrighted
The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission
to publish or exhibit them, see
http://library.pacific.edu/ha/forms
Muir-Hanna Trust
1984
Transcription:
First draft of letter, in note-book 59 (7) Martinez, Sept. 6 1901 . Dear Mr. Sargent: Soon after the death of our friend
Catherine Merrill, Mrs. Moores requested me to contribute to a memorial volume. This I did, sketching the story of our acquaintance
and correspondence - her sympathy and kindness when I was blind, her influence as a teacher and as a woman, her rare personality,
etc., etc, etc. This I sent - just what you want for your sketch - the story of our acquaintance. Her kindness when I was
blind, her influence, my appreciation of her as a friend, teacher, philanthropist, and pure, lovely, noble woman. Memorials,
however hearty and sincere, are often sadly in need of an able editor. This Catherine Merrill biographical material, so rich
in history, in sunny, all embracing sympathy, written as it should be written would be literature, a cheering, charming, helpful
book for everybody, instead of one of those colorless monotones of lamentation and strained praise so common nowadays, floating
in clouds of passing feeling, out of sight and touch of all save her personal world. As far as I know you are the only man
able to write this book. John Muir 02890